Teachers
took on average six days off sick last year, making an estimated 2,799,900 days
lost to sickness.
The
number of teachers taking days off ill rose for the third year in a row, with
283,600 teachers taking sickness absence in 2001.
Provisional
results from the Office for National Statistics show that around 56 per cent of
the workforce took some sickness absence in 2001, a rise of 1 per cent from the
previous year.
According
to the figures, teachers taking sickness absence were likely to be off work for
an average of 10 days during the calendar year.
The
results include full- and part-time teachers and show that London and the North
West are the worst hit areas with 43,200 and 39,800 staff taking sick days.
However,
in terms of the number of days lost to sickness the North West (394,500) and
Yorkshire and the Humber (359,900) lost the most days.
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